Pages

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Recalling Grachev, Del Zotto Wrong Moves

Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Following last night’s game in which both Brandon Prust
(foot) and Dan Girardi (rib) were added to the walking wounded, the New York
Rangers decided to recall Evgeny Grachev and Michael Del Zotto. Both Prust and Girardi were listed as
day-to-day, so the possibility exists that either or both might be unavailable
for tomorrow’s game against the Capitals.
There is no denying that the Rangers are decimated by injuries so the options
as to which players to call up are somewhat limited. It becomes further limited when they consider
those who are free to move between the AHL and NHL without the need for
waivers. All of that being taken into
account I still believe both of these moves are the wrong moves for the
long-term development of these players and accordingly the organization.

Evgeny Grachev is a tremendously skilled forward who has the
potential to be a prolific scorer during his career. What we have seen though is that potential
force the Rangers to rush him to the professional ranks and likely slow his
overall development. Last season he
struggled with the adjustment and only managed 12 goals and 16 assists in 80
games.

This season he struggled for three months which included a
six game stretch in which he was up with the Rangers and showed he clearly was
not ready to be there. This month he has
been phenomenal with 11 points in 10 games including eight goals and three
assists. To go further he had a
hat-trick last night and six goals in his last three games. There is no doubt the young man is on fire,
but while some might see that as a reason he deserves a chance to come up,
instead I see it as more reason to leave him right where he is.

Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images

After two years in the AHL he has finally gotten the message
and they have found ways of using him that allow him to stay involved mentally
in the game throughout. His move to
being used on the penalty kill has been a huge factor in that progression. Along with that, having many of the primary
scorers from the Whale up in New York he has taken on a larger role within the
Connecticut team giving him more offensive chances, which have led to this
offensive explosion. Right now he is
playing on the penalty kill, the power play and big minutes at even
strength. The best thing for his overall
development is to stay down there and be the man for some more time and engrain
everything that is going on right now for better habits and increased
confidence.

Instead this move rushes him once again in attempt to solve
a deficiency on the NHL club in their lack of scoring right now and risks
undoing some of the progress he has made of late. This would be especially true if he got ice
time equivalent to what many of the Whale players have seen in their first
games of around 8 minutes. My assumption
is if Prust cannot go, then Grachev would like play on the third line with
Boyle and Kolarik, which would make the ice time part of it better, but does
not solve the overall mistake of the move.
If Prust does go, which I would not discount at all, then Grachev might
be on the fourth line, which makes the move a disaster. The thing that scares me the most is actually
that he would do something good, like score a goal, and it would give the NHL
management the idea to keep him up instead of allowing for his development to
continue in Hartford. If that doesn’t happen
he is likely here for one or two games and then goes back down.

Where Michael Del Zotto is concerned, on one level the move
is more understandable than Grachev, but on the other they have to know better
than this. What was wrong with Michael
Del Zotto that they had to send him down to the AHL to fix him, has not been
fixed and cannot be fixed in eight games.
Yes, Del Zotto has shown some more of his natural offensive skill with
seven assists in those contests, more rushing of the puck than he was doing,
but there are still the lapses mentally that caused his demotion.

This feels eerily similar to what went on with Matt Gilroy
last year where they sent him down and called him back after just five games
and thought he was cured. What came back
was a scared out of his mind hockey player with no confidence that was
eventually benched for Anders Eriksson down the stretch.

With Del Zotto you are bringing back a young player in the
best case to play a couple of games as a third pair defender while Dan Girardi
gets healthy and then they likely send him back down to the minors. In the worst case you called him up as
Girardi insurance and Girardi can play on Monday, doubtful, and Del Zotto has
now been brought back to sit and watch as a healthy scratch. The buzz word for Del Zotto at least out of
his mouth in all the interviews has been confidence. How does either of these scenarios help his
confidence? If you tell him straight out
it is a temporary thing and he is going back to Hartford when Girardi is able
to go, or he is just insurance in case Dan cannot play you are telling him he is not good enough to be on
your NHL roster. While accurate it does
not help confidence and given the way he apparently reacted when he was told of
his initial demotion I would not expect that to go over too well.

I would rather they leave him down there and get him to
where he is actually right on and off the ice to be able to come back here and
play instead of taking a young player and for lack of a better term “jerking”
him around by going up and down.

Yes, that leaves the obvious question of if not these two
guys then what moves would I make?

In terms of the forward spot and the insurance for Prust I
would just have kept Weise here. I have
not been all that impressed with what Weise has done, but knowing the warrior
Prust is I would expect him to play on Monday and then you have called up Grachev
for either a fourth line roll or pushed Kolarik down and scratched someone
else. There are literally only two games
left before the break and the assumption is that Callahan is back when they
return on February 1. Even if Prust was
out these two games, with the negative x-rays it would be shocking if he was
not also ready at that point.

On defense, I do not expect Girardi to play on Monday and
Del Zotto is the most experienced guy they would call up to get the call, but
why not take a guy like Kundratek instead and give him one or two games just to
see him. Tomas has been arguably the
most consistent of the young defensive prospects throughout the season and
would not have the same potential confidence backlash that Del Zotto does from
the move. Obviously another brand new
defender is less than ideal, but I would consider the move for just a couple
games assuming Girardi cannot go.

Do you think calling them up was the right move? Was one right and the other wrong? What would you do?